COVID Vaccination Policies: Top 4 Legal Concerns
March 12th, 2021
There are many unresolved legal questions to consider when it comes to COVID vaccination employee policies. Labor lawyer Tawny Alvarez of Verrill and MP’s HR consulting team have compiled key advice for reducing legal risk when it comes to COVID vaccination. Here are four major areas of legal concern, as well as some of the best HR strategies to reduce legal risk.
- COVID Vaccination Pre-Screening Questions: Employers who are facilitating on-site vaccination must consider privacy implications. Vaccine pre-screening questions can potentially create issues staying ADA compliant (the Americans with Disability Act). This is because they may elicit disability-related information. Some state-law disability anti-discrimination laws may provide employees with similar protections. Employers can limit risk that is created through pre-screening questions by using a public provider (like a pharmacy) or a third party to handle the vaccination process.
- Continued Social Distancing and Hygiene Protocols Post COVID Vaccination: Employers are required by OSHA to provide a safe working environment for employees. Because so much remains unknown about COVID transmission by vaccinated workers, social distancing, masking, and COVID-related hygiene protocols must be continued. Employers should continue to monitor OSHA and CDC guidance, as it is ever-changing. As of this writing, current advice indicates that quarantine requirements will be reduced if the worker who has been exposed (or potentially been exposed) to COVID was vaccinated.
- Incentives and COVID Vaccination: Providing incentives to employees who receive a COVID vaccination could open a legal can of worms. If some staff cannot get the vaccine because of legal reasons or because they have a disability (especially one covered under the ADA) that prevents them from getting vaccinated, the incentive itself could be viewed as discriminatory. An incentive could also expose an employer to liability under state or federal anti-bias law. Additionally, incentives may be perceived as unlawfully coercive, can create wage and hour concerns, and, depending on vaccination availability, could create arguments in support of discrimination claims.
- Personal Health Information and COVID Vaccination: Employers should not treat vaccinated and unvaccinated workers differently. Though employers might be tempted to create teams or shifts of vaccinated workers to handle certain tasks, doing so could create the risk of discrimination claims or arguments that personal health information has been shared. Employers must treat a worker’s vaccination status as private medical information. They should not share it, nor should they mark their workers with “vaccinated” badges or buttons.
Recent Posts
- Maximizing Your Management Potential
- So, Pay Transparency Just Became Mandatory in Your State. What Do You Need to Do Next?
- You Asked, We Answered: Top Questions About Pay Transparency
- Building a Consistent and Sustainable Compensation Strategy for Your Business
- Pay Transparency 101: Four Ways Your Company Will Benefit
Categories
- ACA (10)
- AI (5)
- BizFeed (6)
- Business Strategy (119)
- COBRA (5)
- Compliance (162)
- COVID-19 (92)
- Diversity (12)
- eBooks (19)
- Employee Engagement (33)
- Employee Handbooks (24)
- ERTC (29)
- FFCRA (7)
- HR (306)
- MP Insider (13)
- Payroll (82)
- PFML (9)
- PPP (24)
- PTO (5)
- Recruiting (53)
- Remote Work (39)
- Return to Work (32)
- Unemployment (1)
- Wellness (22)
Archives
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020